Dayton Audio SA 1000 subwoofer amp - repair


Just posting this repair note to the AudiogoN archives - in case another owner has a similar issue.

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My Dayton Audio SA 1000 subwoofer amp (7 years old) suddenly developed a very loud & scary high-pitched tone – well above 60Hz. On the phone to Dayton support, the tech offered a very weird response. He said: ‘Congratulations. It’s now a boat anchor.’ I asked if it can be repaired. He replied almost amusingly, ‘We don’t repair boat anchors’. Huh? That was one of the strangest chats I’ve ever had with any tech support.

Before tossing it overboard, I did a Google search. It turns out that the capacitor in the C6 position on the power circuit board is known to go bad. (The boards are well labeled.) Capacitor replacement cost $2. DIY labor cost: $0.

The amp is working great again. It does a very good job of driving my subwoofers. The built-in EQ is really nice for integrating the subs with my main speakers. I do recommend it spite of their tech support. It helps if you’re comfortable with a soldering iron.

steakster

Showing 6 responses by brunomarcs

Good to know. One of mine was in protection mode just last night, the light was red instead of blue. Immediately turned it off  then back on and the light stayed blue.  It's only 3 years old. I think what he means by boat anchor is not worth repairing a $500 amp?  But a cheap cap is nothing to fix.  Has anyone else had problems with these?  

One of my Daytons is acting up again, I  had it on the other night and 5 minutes later it was off!  Shut itself down. Before this the blue light was red when I just happened to look at it, as I stated above  in a previous post. I want this amp to work need it to work.  You think it could be that 2 dollar cap? Not much out there on repairing these, I couldn't find anything other than @steakster  post above. 

Mine didn't make any noise and I tried it last night and it worked, only used it for a minute or two shut it down, I want to repair before using again. Thanks. 

I've opened mine and don't see any leaking or bulging caps. Don't see anything that jumps out at me. I've powered it up without anything connected and am gonna watch to see if it goes back in protection. If these are gonna be unreliable I'll start looking for something else, I have two of these in use 3 years now. 
I wouldn't even bother to contact parts express, I bought one on Amazon and the other from parts xpress, it was cheaper than parts xpress.  During Covid even these were hard to get. 

I let mine idle for 8 hours without issue maybe I have something amiss with a cable.